Arnold Defends Hillary, Mulls Senate Run

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If Arnold Schwarzenegger had been born in Austin instead Austria, he might be president today.

But because that office is denied him by the U.S. Constitution, he is concentrating on other things.

Story Continued Below

He told me in a 45-minute interview in his office in the state capitol Thursday:

He will not rule out running for future public office including U.S. senator or mayor of Los Angeles when his term as governor expires in January 2011.

He will not endorse a presidential candidate until after the Republican Convention in September 2008, even though he thinks Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are strong candidates and either could win the California primary.

He wants a deadline for getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, even though he recognizes that President Bush does not.

He thinks Democrats should stop criticizing Hillary Clinton for refusing to say she made a mistake by voting for the Iraq war.

His wife, Maria Shriver, will “absolutely not” run for governor of California or any other public office, quashing speculation that a Schwarzenegger dynasty was in the making.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican who favors abortion rights, stem-cell research, gay rights and gun control, will give a speech at the National Press Club on Monday stressing the importance of centrism in American politics. In my interview with him Thursday, he decried excessive partisanship and said the current system of political gerrymandering in which the vast majority of seats in the House of Representatives are heavily weighted in favor of one party or the other “creates extremism.”

For More Info Visit Our Candidates Page

He said he favors redistricting such seats and also said he favors open primaries in every state so that Republicans can vote for Democrats and vice versa.

John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, he said, symbolize the kind of political positioning that he thinks can win his state 2008. “Both of them are very appealing for Californians, I think, because they are in the center,” he said.

He also said: “I don’t know as much about [Mitt] Romney yet. I’ve never had time to really hang with him and to really talk with him and get a feel about how much we have in common.”

There is some feeling among those close to Schwarzenegger that Romney may be avoiding “hanging” with Schwarzenegger because Romney is wooing Republican conservatives who think Schwarzenegger is too moderate.

Although Schwarzenegger employs Democrats on his staff and has been working closely with California’s Democratic legislature, he said he would definitely endorse the Republican nominee for president. (That would also mean that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a friend and political ally of Schwarzenegger, would not get his endorsement should Bloomberg run for president as an independent.)

“I am very glad we have Republican candidates that are very much in the center and can appeal to both Republicans and Democrats,” Schwarzenegger said.

During the interview, Schwarzenegger sat in a leather chair at the end of a long oak table in his cabinet room. He still uses a cane to walk, the result of a skiing accident in which he broke his right femur last December. He said that while he was no longer on painkillers, full recovery was going to be “a long, long process.”

Schwarzenegger said that he believes politicians should be honest about admitting their mistakes but that “people are too tied down with analyzing” whether Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize the Iraq war was a mistake.

“Is that what makes the country operate well, if she becomes president?” he asked. “How you twist that or spin that? We should look at what has she done as senator. What has Barack Obama done as a U.S. senator or [a state] senator. What has Rudy Giuliani done? What has McCain done? You’ve got to judge people not by this one little thing.”

Schwarzenegger also said candidates should not be judged on a single issue like abortion. No pro-life presidential candidate has carried California since George H.W. Bush did so in 1988. So I asked Schwarzenegger if he thought McCain, who is also pro-life, could possibly win the state in 2008.

“I think he can,” Schwarzenegger said. “What is important is that you look at overall picture, what does he have to offer California and the country. It will be hard. I am not saying it is not a challenge. But the bottom line is I would not, because of one issue, discount anybody.”

Regarding Iraq, Schwarzenegger said: “I think what is important is that we support the war, but we need to have a timeline to let the Iraqis know it is not an open-ended thing. It shouldn’t be another Vietnam or Korea where we are there for decades.”

Schwarzenegger said he supports President Bush in the “need to do everything that we can to come out of it with a victory” but he disagrees with Bush’s refusal to set a deadline for U.S. support.

“We’ve got to say [to the Iraqis] you guys got to get this [done] next year and got to get your act together and after that we start pulling the troops back,” Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger, 59, is term-limited and is in his second and final term as governor. When I asked him if he might run for the Senate or mayor of Los Angeles, both of which have been the subject of speculation, he said: “If you serve the people well, your options are open and you can decide at the last minute anything. If you want to go back to show business, or just go into business or to run for another office, all those options are available.”

Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, played a crucial role in Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign and is said to be his chief political adviser.

So does Schwarzenegger think she would make a good governor?

“My wife has no interest in that,” he said flatly. “Absolutely not. She grew up in a political family, she has tremendous instincts when it comes to politics. But she has no interest in being in the political arena or run for office or anything like that or to manage the state.”

Schwarzenegger said he wanted his own legacy as governor, aside from specific achievements, to be his bipartisan approach to “fighting for the people.”

“That is my primary goal,” he said. “That’s why sometimes Republicans are up in arms and saying this is not our philosophy or sometimes Democrats are up in arms. That’s OK.”

Schwarzenegger concluded the interview by saying with some emotion, “Remember one thing: You will never hear me complain that I can’t run for president. I look at the things I was able to do rather than the things I am not able to do. I am very, very happy about how America has received me and the kind of things I was able to accomplish here.”